1910s

1920s

1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck *Nobel Laureate
1941: no award given
- For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway *Nobel Laureate
1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1943: Dragon’s Teeth by Upton Sinclair
1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
1946: no award given
1947: All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
_{**Award title changed from the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction**}
1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
1949: Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens

1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1962: The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor
1963: The Reivers by William Faulkner (posthumous win)
1964: No award given
1965: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1968: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

1970: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
1971: No award given
1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1973: The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
1974: No award given
- Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1976: Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow *Nobel Laureate
1977: No award given
- A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean
- Special Award: Roots by Alex Haley
1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
- Special Citation: E. B. White
1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

In the 1980s the Pulitzer began publicizing its finalists each year. Certain finalists that interest me are listed below.

1980: The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous win)
1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
- Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy
- Special Citation: Theodor Seuss Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”)
1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison *Nobel Laureate
1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1991: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
- The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
- Special Citation: Maus by Art Spiegelman
1993: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford
1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- Underworld by Don DeLillo
1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2006: March by Geraldine Brooks
2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout